Rating: 3 stars out of 5
Jax’s little brother Mason is all grown up and finds himself longing for a life of adventure. He finds it in a way he never planned late one night while walking home to the lodge beneath a full moon, when he is attacked, bitten and left for dead by a huge black werewolf. As he’s dying and all hope is fading, he is discovered on the trail and believes he’s being saved. Instead, he’s bitten a second time, and this time by a vampire.
Mason finds himself in the middle of an ancient war between the vampires and the Dire werewolves, and during a raid, he’s captured by the wolf who first bit him, a strong alpha named Finn. Finn is powerfully attracted to him, but Mason is changing, becoming something not quite wolf and not quite vampire—a new creature with powers of his own.
A hybrid is an interesting idea, made me think of Underworld, but I had some issues with how the characters acted throughout the story. Mason has been feeling like something big was going to happen but he never expected it to be for him become something that has never existed before. Valeran and Finn have been trying to destroy each other for as long as they can remember.
Valeran saves Mason after Finn’s attack and takes him as a lover and teaching him to hate werewolves. When they finally go after Finn’s pack Mason is captured and Finn takes him as a mate and causes Mason to second guess his feelings for Valeran. It takes a lot for Mason to start using his brain to examine his thoughts and actions.
We get to see all the characters’ points of view which should help to understand them better but most of the time I couldn’t help but think why is he doing that? I didn’t like that Valeran and Finn tried to use Mason against each other for most of the book and Mason doesn’t even realize it until close to the end. His seemingly acceptance that the essentially is suffering from Stockholm Syndrom but is determined to make everything work with both lovers is a bit wacky to me. It takes until the very end of the story for Valeran and Finn to kind of accept their attraction to each other. I am hoping that the series will continue with these three actually having a relationship and getting Finn’s pack back.
The cover art by E Keith is nice and gives good visuals of the Mason.
Sales Links: Painted Hearts Publishing | Amazon | B&N
Book Details:
ebook, 200 pages
Published: March 29, 2017 by Painted Hearts Publishing
Edition Language: English
Series: A Darker Hollow #1
Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words 